Castle Panic Big Box BOX and more!

Posted on Wednesday, Aug 28 2019 11:02AM by Justin De Witt — Leave a comment

From pins to playmats to the perfect storage solution, we’ve added a bunch of new items to our online store.

The Big Box . . . BOX: For fans who have everything Castle Panic (or almost everything) and just need an awesome place to store it, we are excited to offer the Castle Panic Big Box Box for pre-order. It’s the same collectible box and insert, plus the promo items and rulebook, first offered in the Castle Panic Big Box but without any of the other components from Castle Panic or its expansions. We’ll be taking pre-orders for the Big Box Box until September 30th. Then we’ll update everyone with the final shipping information. This will be the only way to get the box, so if you don’t pre-order, you won’t be able to get it.

Kitty Pin: If you missed out on the Pin Bazaar at Gen Con, we’ve got you covered with the Here, Kitty, Kitty! Pin. Now you can take home the big orange kitty from the cover of Here, Kitty, Kitty! with this adorable pin.

Promo Tower: Looking for a new promo? The 2019 International TableTop Day promo tower is now available. This special piece features a rule where all the Monsters in the same arc as the tower are pushed back into the Forest if the tower is destroyed.

Playmat: The Castle Panic playmat makes a great way to upgrade your game, or the perfect gift for the Castle Panic fan who’s looking for something special. It’s the same size as the game board with the same artwork but printed on 1.5mm neoprene.

You can find all these plus games, promo items, mugs, tumblers, t-shirts, and more anytime by visiting our store. Bring fun home with just a click!

Gen Con 2019: Booth 1316

Posted on Monday, Jul 22 2019 9:15AM by Justin De Witt — Leave a comment

Gen Con is here again! And we’re excited to see everyone for the 10-year anniversary of Castle Panic. We’ll have events, cool new tchotchkes, demos, and our new releases this year: My First Castle Panic and the Castle Panic Big Box.

Events: We have events of all of our games in Hall D: White. There are 3 tables in the hall going throughout the convention. And Justin will be dressed as a wizard to host games of Giant Castle Panic outside of room 212, by the escalator, in the afternoons. Almost all of them are sold out, but you can search for open events here.

Demos: In the booth (#1316), we’ll be running demos of My First Castle Panic, Castle Panic, Dastardly Dirigibles, Bears!, and Here, Kitty, Kitty! Justin will also be available to show you the Castle Panic Big Box in the mornings.

Castle Panic Playmat: Have the whole line of Panic games? How about a playmat to upgrade your copy of Castle Panic? We’ve got you covered!

Pin Bazaar: We’re participating in the Pin Bazaar again this year! For the first time, we’ll be offering a pin of the kitty shown on the cover of Here, Kitty, Kitty! Fans of Castle Panic will also love the 10-Year Anniversary pin from Origins 2019 and the Monster Face pin from 2018 Gen Con. You can buy them for $4.95 a piece or get one free with a purchase of $40 or more.

Promos: With a purchase of any game, you’ll receive a free promo. You can also simply buy a promo if you already own the game. We’ll even have the 2019 International Tabletop Day Tower for Castle Panic there!

Deals: In addition to all of the games in our catalog, we will have a special discount bin where you can pick up games at great prices before they go out of stock.

Stop by and see us at booth #1316. We’re so excited to see you there! Safe travels!

How to Play Here, Kitty, Kitty! Video

Posted on Tuesday, Nov 08 2016 9:01AMTuesday, Nov 08 2016 10:46AM by Justin De Witt — Leave a comment

Have you wanted to learn how to play our crazy cat collecting game, but only had 3 minutes and 47 seconds to spare? Well you’re in luck! We’ve just posted the official How to Play Here, Kitty, Kitty! video so now you can learn everything you need to know about stealing, er . . . collecting all the cats in the neighborhood in just a few minutes!

You can also find this video on the Here, Kitty, Kitty! games page.

Gen Con Goodness

Posted on Thursday, Jul 21 2016 4:03PM by Justin De Witt — Leave a comment

Fireside Games Gen Con 2016 Booth Number 743

Final preparations are underway for Gen Con 2016, and we couldn’t be more excited! We’ll have free demos, promos, events, and all kinds of fun!

Free Demos in Booth #743: Want to check out the latest games from Fireside? This is the best way to make sure you’re taught the rules correctly with friendly people who want to make sure your experience is great. We’ll be demoing Star Trek Panic, Here, Kitty, Kitty!, Dastardly Dirigibles, and Bears! in booth #743.

Promos for Demos: We’ll also be giving demoers these hard- to-find promos for checking out the games.
• Star Trek Panic: Vulcan Mind-Meld
• Here, Kitty, Kitty!: Milkshake
• Dastardly Dirigibles: Smoke Bomb
• Bears!: Alarm Clock

Extras: Dastardly Dirigibles winners can pose with the dapper Heir-on-a-Stick to show their win to the world. And purchasers of Star Trek Panic receive a spare U.S.S. Enterprise! It’ll look great on your desk. That is, until you need to replace the one in your game after all of that damage!

Events: This year, Fireside Games is hosting events for the first time! We sold out of our original events within 3 days and opened up more. Just 4 seats remain open. One for Dead Panic, and three for The Village Crone. Click here to sign up. After you click on the link, select the Board Game category to find our events. Hope to see you there!

The Dark Titan Wins Origins Award!

Posted on Tuesday, Jun 21 2016 2:14PM by Justin De Witt — Leave a comment

Origins Game Fair was last week and it was a blast! We had a booth in the Main Exhibit Hall and ran demos of Here, Kitty, Kitty!, Dastardly Dirigibles (releasing July 6), and Star Trek^TM Panic^® (available now!). Our booth was so busy and we got to see so many familiar faces and make some new friends.

Demo of Dastardly Dirigible being played — Dastardly Dirigibles gets some pre-release demo time. Look for this title on July 6!

Kris holds a copy of Here, Kitty, Kitty! — Kris McCardel Ware, designer of Here, Kitty, Kitty! had a blast collecting cats with attendees.

We had the designer of Here, Kitty, Kitty! in the booth playing with attendees and the artist, Tony Steele, was back in the art area drawing cats on boxes for anyone who picked up a copy and asked nicely.

Star Trek^TM Panic^® received lots of attention and we had demo after demo of excited gamers devouring the latest variation in the Panic Line.

Saturday of the show happened to coincide with International Panic Day and it was fun to see Social Media explode with posts from Friendly Local Game Stores around the country hosting events in-store to celebrate the day, while we played the latest variation with attendees at the show.

The biggest thrill of the show was at the Origins Awards ceremony Saturday night when it was revealed The Dark Titan, the second expansion to Castle Panic®, was the winner of the Fan Favorite award for the Gaming Accessory category! Thanks fans!

Anne-Marie holding the Origins Award statue — Anne-Marie De Witt accepting the award for Fan Favorite Game Accessory for The Dark Titan expansion to Castle Panic. (Photo Credit: The GameBoard, LLC)

Origins Award Statue next to The Dark Titan boxes — The Dark Titan was bragging in the booth the next day.

Origins award statue — Fancy statuette is fancy!

Anne-Marie De Witt, our CEO, accepted the award on behalf of Fireside Games because Justin De Witt, the designer and Chief Creative Officer for the company, was back at home in Texas working on the THIRD expansion. You can expect more news on that game to be coming VERY SOON!

Castle Panic and the first expansion, The Wizard’s Tower, were both Origins Awards Nominees in their respective release years, so you know the whole line is good. Fans really love the toughness of Agranok in The Dark Titan and we appreciate all the support and dedication to this line you, the fans, bring every time you see us at a show or a local game store.

Thanks to all of you for making Origins Game Fair 2016 such a success and so much fun. We’ll see you there next year. And remember… Just PANIC and Play Games!

Save

International TableTop Day 2016

Posted on Tuesday, Apr 26 2016 12:52PMWednesday, Jul 13 2016 5:45PM by Justin De Witt — Leave a comment

International TableTop Day is almost upon us! Quick! Grab some friends and a couple of games and plan a day around it!

We will be visiting a few local game stores in Austin, TX on the day (April 30th this year) and invite you to join us. Anne-Marie and Justin will be at Wonko’s Toys & Games from 12–2:30 PM CT and then from 4–6 they will be at Dragon’s Lair Comics & Fantasy-Austin. They will be playing Here, Kitty, Kitty! and showing off an early copy of Dastardly Dirigibles (releases in July)!

If you aren’t in the Austin, TX area but want to find a local place to meet some new gamers and hang out for the day’s festivities, check out the list of participating retailers on the official Geek & Sundry International TableTop Day page to find one near you.

We have also partnered with Geek & Sundry on the official retailer event kits and there will be special, exclusive Castle Panic promo towers at 300 stores around the country. Check with individual game stores to see if they will have a kit and how they will be distributing the goodies, it will vary by location.

Hosting an event with your friends at your house or neighborhood hang out? Be sure to use the official #tabletopday hashtag to connect with people near and far! You can watch the 24-hour live stream on Twitch and see what gamers all over the world are doing to celebrate gaming this year.

Here, Kitty, Kitty! Review Round Up: Part Deux

Posted on Tuesday, Apr 19 2016 9:37AM by Justin De Witt — 2 Comments

As if you needed more reasons to covet your very own copy of Here, Kitty, Kitty!… but here you go! Another group of reviews have been rounded up and it was way easier than herding cats.

“Start channeling your inner cat lady, because Here Kitty, Kitty!, by Fireside Games, is a kitten collecting frenzy of quick playing fun.” – Gameosity

Over at Blog Critics they found the gameplay “lively with laughter atop its solid base of scheming, making it a perfect game for cat-lovers and game enthusiasts alike.” To put it another way, “fun gameplay that is light enough for casual gamers while still giving more hardcore players opportunity to analyze strategy.” It’s nice to know we achieved our goals with this one!

Matt Quiett, from Nerd’s Domain, says, “I give Here, Kitty, Kitty! a 4 out of 5 stars… It’s fun, light and enjoyable.”

Jess from Gameosity couldn’t agree more. “The game is fast, fun, and light, with a good dose of silliness thrown in. Each card has hysterical illustrations that really bring the game to life.”

Of course, what is a review round up for a cat game without a few good cat puns? Special thanks to Kentucky Bored Gamer who supplied a healthy dose of them in his review:
“The game play is fast and furr-ious. The rounds go quickly and there is a lot of fun to be had… So, Should you buy this game? YES! Not only is this game a GREAT family game in general, the cat theme is purr-fect for any cat lover or gamer that is new or old to board gaming.”

Over at Toys Bulletin they had a blast playing it, “…it is an enjoyable game experience from start to finish.” And the Bizarre Brunette declares, “If you are a crazy cat lady like myself, this game must be in your closet.”

And the art? Well, of course it is still getting lots of love:

“The art by Tony Steele is bright and entertaining, featuring cats in all kinds of poses…make the deck so entertaining that players may have to work to focus on their game.” – Blog Critics

The art for this game… is beautiful and fitting to the theme. It’s playful and a bit of a “cartoony” look which is nice and really does fit the theme and game play.” – Kentucky Bored Gamer

“Complements are also in order regarding the artwork and illustrations shown on the game cards…they were superb and made you smile every time you examined a card.” – Toys Bulletin

If that’s still not enough to convince you to visit your Friendly Local Game Store and nab a copy of your very own, how about this?

Troy Stegner for the El Paso Herald Post expresses his approval while inventing a new rating system. “I give this game 4 out of 4 cans of tuna.”

Review Round-Up for Here, Kitty, Kitty!

Posted on Thursday, Mar 31 2016 1:10PM by Justin De Witt — Leave a comment

Tomorrow you’ll be able to get your own copy of Here, Kitty, Kitty! at a game store near you. And it is already getting high praise. Let the early reviewers tell you what they love about it and convince you to adopt one of your very own!

The artwork and theme win big with this one. Of course, you probably already guessed that, since who can resist a bunch of adorable kitties?

“It’s silly fun and the artwork on the cards is really excellent…” says Go Fatherhood.

“I love the artwork. This game pulls no punches on any of the humor,” raves Rick Perez of Let’s Level Up. “The artwork in this game is tremendously humorous. There are just so many funny cards that I just got a good chuckle at, which I think should be commended because I think that the artwork is fantastic.”

What about game play? This game is so much more than just a pretty face. While it is simple to learn, there is a depth to the game that leaves players desiring another go to hone their strategies and grow their hoard of kitties.

GeekDad declares, “Here, Kitty, Kitty! is a fun little family game. It’s easy to learn and plays quickly.”

“We all had a great time with this fast, simple game, so much so that when we finished, they immediately both asked for us to play a second game,” comments Go Fatherhood reviewer, Dave Taylor, about playing this game with his kids.

Tricia Victor from Golden Distribution was delighted by the added intricacy in the game. “My favorite part of Here, Kitty, Kitty! was the depth of strategy that was involved… It was fascinating to watch everyone’s strategy to obtain kittens evolve from one game to the next. Here, Kitty, Kitty! is competitive without anyone realizing how much movement, placement & area control happens with the neighborhood cats.”

Let’s Level Up agrees, “There’s plenty of room to be strategic, both on the offensive side and the defensive side, and there are a lot of important decisions that you make while you’re choosing your two actions. There are a lot of opportunities to think outside of the box.”

Here, Kitty, Kitty! is simple to learn, and will be a great filler or light game for your next game night. You can play it with an emphasis “…good old fashioned fun…” (InternetvsWallet), or take it a little more seriously like Perez did, “If you’re a fan of ‘take-that’ games, Here, Kitty, Kitty! is amazing in that regard.”

Final Verdict

Well, we’ll just let them tell you…
“…a fantastically fun game… I think it’s fabulous and ‘purrrfect.‘” – Rick Perez, Let’s Level Up
“It is a family friendly, lighthearted game… that will keep everyone coming back to the table for more.” – Tricia Victor, Golden Distribution
“Buy this game. You and your family will love it.” – Internet vs Wallet
“Definitely recommended and a game I’m sure will move onto the active shelf.” – Go Fatherhood
“It’s easy to learn, appropriate for families, and features adorable plastic miniature cats.” – Ryan Morgenegg, Deseret News
“… it is AWESOME!.. this one really is the cat’s meow…” – Third Eye Games

You can watch Let’s Level Up’s full video review below, or choose any of the links above to view the full reviews shared in this article.

Here, Kitty, Kitty! FREE Demos at a Store Near You!

Posted on Monday, Mar 28 2016 10:38AMFriday, Apr 01 2016 5:00PM by Justin De Witt — 2 Comments

Here, Kitty, Kitty! is coming to a store near you on April 1! No fooling’!

Want to hone your cat-hoarding skills? Check out one of the stores participating in our official launch event with FREE demos on April 2 and 3 from our partners with the Envoy program.

Below is a list of the stores that have signed on to host demos. Please contact the store directly for demo times:

Participating Stores

Dragon’s Keep Gaming Room                   Fayetteville, AR
Game Castle                                                  Santa Clara, CA
Crit Castle Games                                        Aurora, CO
Legacy Cards Comics, Games, & More   New London, CT
Emerald City                                                 Clearwater, FL
The Adventure Game Store                        Davie, FL
Tyche’s Games                                              Athens, GA
Other Realms Ltd                                         Honolulu, HI
The Armchair Adventurer                          Honolulu, HI
Secret Door Games                                      Elkhart, IN
The Game Annex                                          Fort Wayne, IN
A+ Comics and Games                                Lexington, KY
Modern Myths                                              Northampton, MA
Play More Games                                         Gaithersburg, MD
All About Games                                           Belfast, ME
Acropolis Games                                           Adrian, MI
The Loaded Die                                             Ferndale, MI
Highlander Games                                       Minneapolis, MN
Dark Knight Gaming (Southern Geek Fest)   Long Beach, MS
Red Door Games                                           Richlands, NC
Hobbytown USA                                           Lincoln, NE
Arcana Toys, Games, & Hobbies               Washington, NJ
Elite Battlegrounds                                       Green Brook, NJ
Fallout Shelter                                               Highland Park, NJ
Alterniverse                                                    Hyde Park, NY
Legendary Realms Games                             Plainview, NY
Diversions Gaming & Hobby                      Newbury, OH
Old School Gaming                                       Toledo, OH
Recess                                                              North Olmsted, OH
Game HQ                                                        Oklahoma City, OK
Six Feet Under                                               New Holland, PA
The Temple Games                                       Pawtucket, RI
Blockhouse Games & Comics                     Mansfield, TX
Mage’s Sanctum                                            Austin, TX
Roll2Play                                                        Coppell, TX
The Gathering Place                                     San Angelo, TX
The Island Games                                         Centreville, VA

Your favorite local game store not on the list? Ask if they received one of our exclusive Launch Kits for access to the special Milkshake promo card. You can also encourage them to participate in future new release events throughout the year. They can contact our Marketing team to get details.

Here, Kitty, Kitty! has been getting a lot of positive buzz lately, watch our blog for a review round up coming later this week.

Catch Cat Fever with Here Kitty Kitty – Coming Spring 2016

Posted on Thursday, Oct 29 2015 10:30AMWednesday, Jul 13 2016 5:43PM by Justin De Witt — Leave a comment

It is National Cat Day, and Fireside Games is pleased to take this opportunity to announce Here, Kitty, Kitty!, a new game that will be releasing in Spring 2016.

In this crazy cat-collecting game your neighborhood has a cat problem. The problem is they don’t all belong to YOU! Everyone in the neighborhood wants to claim those adorable kitties for themselves.

Outwit your fellow feline fiends as you lure cats onto your property, move cats into your house, and steal cats from your neighbors. All is fair in love and cat-collecting!

Here, Kitty, Kitty! will include 40 covetable cat miniatures. You will have a hard time picking a favorite! The game retails for $24.95, accommodates 3-6 players, and plays in approximately 30 minutes.

Designed by Kris McCardel Ware, a self-proclaimed “crazy cat lady,” this game is full of thematic jokes and cat puns. There are no blenders or explosions in this game, but if you use your “Catlike Reflexes” and avoid “Stray Dogs” and “Hairballs,” you might just “Land on Your Feet!”

Get ready for some feline fever this coming Spring with Here, Kitty, Kitty!